Rollercoaster

[impy]

Read my SVT graphic novel version of Choosing Sides today and I have thoughts.

We have a character list at the back of the book! Huzzah! Not everyone is listed but it is a start and I will take it.

Spoilers or me being bitchy, you decide. I think I know why they flip-flopped the books. In the grand tradition of driving me bonkers by switching artists, Book 4 is being done by a different artist. Which explains my rollercoaster of emotions.

The preview image of Nora didn't look great but I was just so happy to see her, y'know? Then we get a preview of her in this book, in the current artist's style, and I am in love! So pretty!

The book ends, we get our character list (eeeeeeeee!) and then there's the preview for the next book. Which I'd peeked at when I saw the book up for preorder but hadn't really, really looked at. Um... this Nora is not the same. These twins are not the same. I have not been so excited for something and then so disappointed by the art and my fear for how it'll be in a very, very long time.

I think I'd still be riding high on the Nora adaptation eeee if not for seeing what I could have gotten instead of what we will. I'm trying to remain optimistic... but I hate it when I get used to one artist and then get thrown a new one without warning.

Still, looked up the new artist online and we shall see. It is weird that the preview for Choosing Sides focused on the Mercandy thing at the end vs the storyline we get.

Ken shows up and he looks nothing like Ken. He's cute but not Ken. Blond!Bruce is still so wrong on so many levels and I refuse to accept 80's movie beefy bully as Bruce fucking Patman.

Comments

[impy]

VINDICATION! But also sadness because I was really hoping I was just being bitchy, but your icon (love!) and preview!Nora are not the same at all and it's killing me to know what we could have had. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

[venivididolli]

As soon as I saw your post, I knew I had to make the icon for my impending comment. Before I even read a word. I enjoyed it, though I definitely agree about blond jock Patman not being Bruce at all. I thought Ken was really cute though.

Some of the appearance changes I don't mind, but others don't make much sense. Like I don't mind Julie being black. I like the spunky graphic novel Julie. Redhead Amy is fine. I still don't think Lila would always have a ponytail or those bangs. Janet I don't really mind, though SVT cover Janet is still super pretty to me and I kinda wish she still looked like that with her little Unicorns in Hawaii bob. Kimberly I definitely don't mind, because I can't even remember what she looked like. Another brunette white girl probably. Which is also why I don't mind pale blonde Ellen, as she was yet another brunette white girl. Though I don't think she really dresses like a Unicorn. Winston I was fine with. Ken, too. Bruce I hate. I don't think I much minded at first, but in the third graphic novel, it became very apparent that this was not working. One of the ones I hate most is Alice. She's just this kinda frumpy, frazzled mom now. Alice Wakefield was supposed to be stunning and young-looking. At least the Wakefield men still look good. Steven definitely got a glow up.

I'm hoping the new art style will grow on me. The BSC ones always did. But the change in Noras was certainly jarring!

[impy]

BBBB is just wrong on so many levels and I will not accept him as Bruce. Imposter! I was willing to give it a shot but nope.

Ken is adorable, he just doesn't read as Ken to me. Which could be partly because I don't remember much about SVT Ken beyond him being short, kind, and into Amy. I should re-read the first two and then swing back around for #3 again.

Yup, Kimberly was the taller brunette (usually darker brown hair) so the changes help her stand out instead of having to compare shades of brown to figure out which one she was. Lila would not have a perma-ponytail and the bangs are questionable at best. Huh. Are we talking the cover of the Unicorns Go Hawaiian? I thought the brunette with the bob was Ellen. Have I spent my life believing a lie?

I don't mind Ellen looking like I kind of pictured Amy to look except Ellen's claim to fame is being so dumb it physically hurts to read if we're not in the Unicorn Club books. I'll have to go back and pay attention to her clothes. Each time I see graphic novel Amy, I think of Zoey from The Proud Family which is an odd combo to have in my head. Julie's cute though my brain has skipped waaaaaaay ahead and is wondering, "so what'll Maria be looking like?" But that's not for ages.

YES. Alice drives me bonkers! I get that they were going for obvious mom character but Ned's still obvious Dad without looking like he wakes up every morning and electrocutes himself for fun.

It's painfully cruel to give us awesome Nora and then immediately take her away. I loved the little details they gave her and the nods to the season for what the twins were wearing at the end of GN3 and having it all go poof is gonna tick me off hardcore.

[venivididolli]

Uh oh, wait, I need to go look up some covers.

Okay, on the Hawaiian book, I always thought Janet was on the left with the bob because she looks a little older and has darker hair than Ellen did, and she's also got the mole that's the plot point in her storyline. Isn't there a mole? I swear I see one by the left side of her mouth. That meant Ellen, who was formerly cute on Buried Treasure and Class Trip, was the one with bangs at the top. She looks a little airheaded. Jump ahead to #66 and I thought it was Ellen on the upper left. Same kind of airheaded expression. Then Janet was in black sitting with Lila, because older = taller and cousins sitting together. But then on #80, that's clearly Ellen and she's back to having the short bob and really cute face. Which neither of them had on #66. ARGH.

I want to say Unicorns Go Hawaiian was one of the first of the series I actually owned. I can't remember if I even read it first or how I started reading the series. I don't think I did it in order. If I did, I must have gotten them from the library or something. But I think I picked this up and then grabbed whatever else was still on the shelves in KMart or wherever I was shopping. It wasn't a bookstore. I know for sure #50 was my first of the actual series, so wherever I was only had the more recent books. So my initial assumptions over who was who on the cover could very well be wrong.

Considering how much the characters change from cover to cover, she can easily be Ellen for you and Janet for me.

[impy]

*muse* See, I always thought that the girl in black near Lila on 66 was Mandy, if only because I'm 99% sure that's Mandy on the cover of 76 and they look pretty close, and I think she shows up on a few more covers where Mandy makes more sense than Janet...even though she looks nothing like the cover of MM Fights Back. I do like your logic though. I swear, Lila may look nothing like I ever pictured her but at least she's easy to pick out until the artists change.

Part of me wants to dig Go Hawaiian out to see if there is a mole (I don't see one on the covers I can find online but I'm not gonna say there isn't one) but my laziness shall win out once more.

I just always chalked the short hair up to Ellen and went with my theory that Janet wasn't actually all that pretty (sorry, airheaded brunette) but had basically decreed herself Pretty and Popular and through sheer force of will had gotten others to go along with it. So for me it was less airhead and more "Yes, peasants, I am the greatest,aren't I?" But since the only two Unicorns who tended to look similar across book covers were Mary and Lila, cute bob can definitely be your Janet and my Ellen. :D